Thanks Eugene and koohead, it's been a relief to know that this is not just me! And thanks for the pointer to the file, koohead. I have messed about through trial and error and have got the plaques to a point where I am happy. I have bolded the text, reduced to font=9 as suggested and moved the text sections up slightly under the photo. Result is my tests so far show all plaques have readable text and it is contained in the plaque

- see attached
Strange thing is that about half the HOF inductee page plaques have a zoomed out photo not a head shot as directed in the hof.xml and all have no background. No idea why but if I remove the player from the HOF and then (re) induct them they all then have the correct close up face with a background.
I'll need to remember to check each HOF inductee at the time they are promoted to HOF and if the photo is wrong I will need to remove and re induct!
Many thanks again!